

Flashbacks can range from distraction to complete dissociation or loss of awareness of the current context. These triggers cause flashbacks, which are dissociative experiences where the person feels as though the events are recurring. They may turn to psychoactive substances including alcohol to try to escape or dampen the feelings. Re-experiencing can damage people's sense of safety, self, self-efficacy, as well as their ability to regulate emotions and navigate relationships. These can produce uncomfortable and even painful feelings. In this process, the benign stimulus becomes a trauma reminder, also called a trauma trigger. This process is called traumatic coupling. Sometimes a benign stimulus (e.g., noise from a motorcycle) may get connected in the mind with the traumatic experience. For example, the sound of a motorcycle engine may cause intrusive thoughts or a sense of re-experiencing a traumatic experience that involved a similar sound (e.g., gunfire). Īfter a traumatic experience, a person may re-experience the trauma mentally and physically. The range of reactions to trauma can be wide and varied, and differ in severity from person to person. The severity of these symptoms depends on the person, the types of trauma involved, and the emotional support they receive from others. People who go through extremely traumatizing experiences often have problems and difficulties afterwards. ( June 2021) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.

This section needs additional citations for verification. This discrepancy in risk rate can be attributed to protective factors some individuals may have that enable them to cope with difficult events, including temperamental and environmental factors (such as resilience and willingness to seek help).


Some people will develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after being exposed to a major traumatic event (or series of events). In other words, not all people who experience a potentially traumatic event will actually become psychologically traumatized (although they may be distressed and experience suffering). Given that subjective experiences differ between individuals, people will react to similar events differently. Trauma is not the same as mental distress or suffering, both of which are universal human experiences. Longer-term reactions include unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, difficulties with interpersonal relationships and sometimes physical symptoms including headaches or nausea. Reactions such as psychological shock and psychological denial are typical. Psychological trauma, mental trauma or psychotrauma is an emotional response to a distressing event or series of events, such as accidents, rape, or natural disasters.
